It started with a small pit their great-grandfather lined with rocks to store food only to be turned into a hidden cellar after their village was attacked and their grandparents lost everything. After their father died, they reinforced the cellar with stones, added tunnels and several small rooms before adding a hidden alcove off one of the tunnels.
They’d filled the small rooms with the grains, butter, salted meats, and vegetables that the villagers paid them for protection and hid their best weapons along with the pieces of jewelry, silver, and coins that they were paid for their skills in the small alcove. They kept the land that was given to them and most of the cattle and traded the rest for better weapons.
When he found out the king was coming for Tadgh, he’d sent word to his brothers, gave Bécc the small plot of land the king had given him to train his men along with the purse of silver coins he’d been given that month to take Lasarín north to keep her safe, and got Tadgh and Macha out of there before it was too late.
None of them ever made it back home alive after that.
“He was working at a coffee shop in London as a serving boy when he started noticing that the conversation had shifted from politics and gossip ta stocks, investing, and banking. He watched as men who could barely scrape together a penny for a cup of coffee one week came back the next week decked out in new wigs and silk shirts and tossing pennies at him for simply telling them the time.”
“So, he started paying attention, listening ta what they were talking about, watching who was struggling one week and the next, leaving in a custom coach. He also watched who came in with their pockets filled with gold only ta have ta borrow a penny ta enter the next week,” Finn explained only to have Quinn take over.
“He knew that we would need it if we ever broke the curse, so he saved his money, took a coach ta the west coast, bought passage on a merchant ship ta Ireland, spent the rest of his money on a wagon, a lame horse, a pick, and a shovel. It took him two weeks, but he eventually found the remains of our old roundhouse and another week ta find our stash.”
“He brought everything back ta London and sold it for a fortune. He began investing small, stocks, insurance, banks, and eventually, he bought property, invested with companies, and grew his holdings. He set up everything in a settlement and created a fake trustee and put everything that we would need ta manage the money in a metal box and hid it,” Quinn explained before Liam took over.
“By the time the curse came for him, Aidan had set everything up so that Quinn could take over. When he was in his cursed form, he guided us on what ta do, what ta buy, when ta sell, and how ta set it up for the next brother ta take over. He kept it going until the internet allowed him ta manage everything online. Thanks ta Aidan, we’ll never have ta worry about money,” Liam said while Shayne sat there, taking in everything that he’d just learned only to find himself wondering about one thing.
“When?”
“In the 1690s,” Finn said, drawing Shayne’s attention in a big fucking way.
“When we were all supposed to be alive,” Shayne said, wondering how his brother knew about their stash.
Every time they were born, they came back with a clean slate. They didn’t remember anything about their previous life, the curse, their soulmates, or each other. The only thing that they knew was that ghosts really existed and that there was one woman that they couldn’t seem to live without.
They depended on each other for everything else, which meant that one of his brothers had to have told Aidan about the stash. The question was, which one, Shayne wondered as he glanced around the room, noting the way that none of his brothers could quite meet his gaze before he settled on Quinn.
The weak link of the group.
He didn’t say anything, but then again, he didn’t have to, not with Quinn. When his brother’s jaw clenched and his gaze narrowed on the wall, Shayne knew that it was only a matter of time before his brother cleared his throat, shifted, intensified his glare, and-
“It wasn’t my idea,” Quinn said, licking his lips nervously as Finn and Liam glared at him only to release muttered curses when Quinn pointed a damning finger at Liam. “It was him!”
Slowly nodding, Shayne glanced at his brother to find Liam glaring at him. “We needed ta find out how the curse affected ye,” Liam said in Old Gaelic with a pointed look at Marty as he grabbed a memory stick off the bureau and threw it at him.
“Yer an asshole,” Shayne said, slipping into Old Gaelic as he caught the memory stick.
“If you hadn’t given into the pull, then we wouldn’t know that you need to make her fall in love with you in order to trigger the curse,” Tristan reminded him in Old Gaelic as he grabbed the laptop off the nightstand and handed it to him, making him bite back a curse since the last thing that he wanted to do was make Ashlyn fall in love with him, but he didn’t have a choice.
Not if they were going to have any chance of breaking this curse and setting everyone free.
“It’s not going ta matter if this plan doesn’t work,” Finn said as Shayne slid the memory stick in place and-
“They gave her the wrong files,” Marty said as she handed him the file and a way to get Ashlyn to agree to this asinine plan.
CHAPTER 6
“Ye poor, dumb bastard...” Quinn said with a pitying look that was matched by Finn as the two of them released matching heartfelt sighs as Tristan opened his bedroom door and-
“So, I have a few questions,” came the absently murmured question that drew his attention to find his wife sitting in the middle of their bed, making a show of studying her fingernails while he took in his old police academy tee-shirt, a pair of black flannel pajama pants, and what appeared to be a pair of his socks on her tiny feet and felt his lips twitch when she began wiggling her little toes.
“Should I call my lawyer?” Tristan asked, closing the door behind him.
“It depends on your answers,” Marty said with a sniffle that had him smiling as he made his way across their bedroom.
“What if I promise to cooperate?” Tristan asked as he climbed onto their bed and dropped back against the pillows.
“I’d be willing to take that into consideration,” Marty said as she climbed onto his lap with a satisfied sigh.
